Back in the summer I wrote about Ofcom’s proposal that certain types of VoIP service should provide access to the emergency services through the usual 999 or 112 numbers. As always, there was a public consultation to give everyone a chance to make comments on the proposals. Ofcom has now mulled over the comments and made a decision.

The essence of it is that, by September next year, VoIP providers that allow national calls to be made on the PSTN will have to carry emergency calls. This is a sensible outcome but there is a lot more involved than that simple statement implies.

Providers of communications services have to comply with Ofcom’s General Conditions of Entitlement (GCs). VoIP services escaped the need to provide 999 access because they are not considered to be Publicly Available Telephony Services (PATS). This is because of a strange circular definition that a PATS had to provide 999 access or it couldn’t be a PATS. Ofcom has broken this circle by changing the applicability of General Condition 4 (GC4). It now clearly covers VoIP systems.

I mentioned before that Ofcom would require VoIP providers to send location information to the emergency centres. This is now confirmed, but Ofcom has realised that this is a big problem with IP networks and has used the words “to the extent technically feasible”. This is not a cop-out because Ofcom will expect to see a steady improvement with time. There are already several organisations working on methods of providing good IP location information. In the meantime, VoIP providers will have to collect and provide the address where the main service is used. Services used mainly on a nomadic basis will escape this if they mark the information as being from a VoIP connection; the emergency operator will then be prompted to ask the caller for more details.

The change in GC4 has several interesting side effects and imposes further regulations on VoIP providers unconnected with 999 access. For example, GC8 requires the provision of operator services and directory enquiries; GC15 requires that special services for disabled people are supported and charged at special rates. There is, however, a concession that VoIP services not supporting incoming calls from the PSTN are exempt. There is a danger that these extra regulations may cause some VoIP providers to withdraw support for incoming calls. Ofcom is aware of this but does not expect many to do so because of market pressures.

The new rules will improve the quality and usefulness of VoIP services in general, not just 999 access, and are very welcome.